Forbidden Island
by CaitieBug16
Summary: Based off my favorite board game, Forbidden Island, I strove to keep the basic rules and moves of the game, while adding my own little twist. Play the game, and enjoy.


"Carrie?" At her name, a slim, russet-haired young woman opened her eyes and heard the familiar roar of a helicopter engine, along with the heavy whirs of the propellor above them. She squinted into the brown eyes of the young man looking down at her anxiously. "We're almost there."

Carrie gave a groggy nod. "I can't believe I fell asleep." He helped her sit up, and she adjusted the earphones around her head.

The American-Asian nodded, placing a hand on one of his earphones. "Yeah. We were talking about the mission again, and-"

"Quyen, shut up," another man laughed from the controls, a blond with blue eyes, very light freckles on his nose and an alluring smile. "If we hear about the mission one more time, I'm going to hurt you. It's just going to an island and getting some stuff."

Carrie smiled and wiped her eyes sleepily. "How long do you think this is going to take?"

"Maybe twelve hours, tops," the co-pilot answered, a brunette with small, bushy curls to her shoulders and rounded rectangular glasses. "We adjusted the plan when you fell asleep. We're now just going to parachute down in different locations, rather than just climbing down the ladder." She rolled her eyes when Carrie nodded.

"When are the other two joining us?"

"They aren't," the blond said tersely. Even in disgust, he still looked attractive.

"What do you mean, Gabriel?"

The brunette cleared things up. "They dropped out. Apparently government money isn't enough."

Carrie frowned, her brow furrowing. "Someone go over the plan again."

"What, twice wasn't enough?" Quyen asked, raising an eyebrow.

"I'm too confusing for her to handle," Gabriel teased with a wink in Carrie's direction. "Well-"

"What we're going to do is," the brunette cut in, pushing her glasses up on the bridge of her nose, "go in, get the relics, and get out. It's pie; I don't understand why y'all are making such a big deal out of it. Nothing lives there, it's just an old mythical forgotten island belonging to a once-great civilization. Like the Incas or Atlantis."

"Yeah, I got that much the first few times, Olive," Carrie said unappreciatively, "but what I want to know are the details. What do we go in with?"

"Did you, like, hit your head or something? We've gone over this."

"_Quyen..."_

"Alright. This helicopter has a lot of stuff in the back, two jetpacks, and a set of diving equipment," Quyen patted the shoulderbag of instruments he kept next to him and smiled. "And I've got a few surprises of my own."

"Ever the explorer," the co-pilot said, smiling back at them. She pushed up her glasses again. "I'll be able to fix any equipment that happens to break down as well."

"In a short time-frame, I hope," Quyen replied teasingly. Then he leaned back into his seat and pouted. "And you get the other jetpack."

"Yep," Olive said smugly, and turned her head around to face the front.

"Look, there's the island up ahead, everybody," Gabriel announced to the team. "Our doom awaits," he teased.

_ "What?"_ As Olive hit him on the arm, Carrie took a peek out of her window. Sure enough, there it was, looming ominously closer the nearer they flew.

"You okay?" Quyen asked.

Carrie nodded. "Yeah. I was just wondering...why do we need diving equipment?"

"In case one of the relics are under water," said Gabriel from the front. "We decided you're going to be the diver, right?"

"Yep," said Carrie, then glanced back at Quyen. "May I see the map please?"

"Sure." She must have seen the map a hundred times, but he passed it to her again, and Carrie studied the twenty-four locations the detailed map designated. "What are these marked spots?" she asked, looking up.

Quyen scooted closer beside her to look. "The green mark is me," he said, pointing to the little spot on the area titled _Copper Gate, _on one of the westernmost sectors of the island_._ "I'll be parachuting down first to look for clues."

"Because no-one knows _where the relics are,"_ growled Olive. "Geez, I almost turned down this job. They can't even give us the locations of the artifacts?"

"Well, to be fair, they gave us all the intelligence they knew," Quyen responded.

"Which is almost nothing."

"Chill out," interrupted Gabriel. "Keep going, Q."

So Quyen continued, turning back to Carrie. "This place here is where Olive's parachuting." He placed a narrow forefinger on the section of the map labeled _Bronze Gate, _on the northern side of the island.

"Are the gates really made up of bronze and silver?" Carrie asked.

"As far as we know," Olive replied from the front with a shrug.

"See, there's also a 'Silver Gate', and 'Iron Gate'. That's where you'll be parachuting, by the way," said Quyen, pointing to both these locations, to the east.

Carrie nodded. "And Gabriel will land here?" Her pale fingertip touched his on the sector named _Fools' Landing, _at the bottom of the well-drawn map_._

"Fools' Landing, yup," said Gabriel from the controls. "Kind of a condescending name."

"Like a warning," added Olive, intrigued. She played with one of the dark curls around her face, twisting it thoughtfully around her fingers. Gabriel mashed some flashing buttons, fiddled with the collective pitch control on the left of his seat, and tilted the cyclic forward. Carrie watched out of the side of her window as the craft lost altitude, descending toward the gloomy island ahead. She felt her stomach clench and faught for breath. There was something wrong about this island, something beyond the mystery of being extremely archaic. Carrie couldn't help but feel a sense of dread pool uncomfortably in her stomach. Quyen, who noticed this, lightly touched her shoulder.  
>"Are you alright?"<p>

"Fine," said Carrie. "Just a bit nervous."

"Get ready, Q!" Gabriel announced with a wide grin as he glanced at them over his shoulder. "Two minutes and counting."

"Right." Quyen was suddenly all business, and he stood up to slip on the parachute, and hook up to it his shoulderbag. "We do have water, right?" he added before removing the helicopter headset. He seemed confident enough.

"They're in the pack," Carrie assured him, for she'd made the emergency kits for everyone in their backpacks.

"Thirty seconds," said Gabriel calmly, more calmly then he'd sounded the whole trip. Quyen made ready, and even though all four of them had practiced jumping from this height, Carrie was worried for him. There was room for so many things to go wrong...

"Three...two...one." At one Quyen, having no fear of heights, made the leap off the helicopter and into the open air. Carrie leaned over as the craft sped past, and saw his green parachute open below. She released the breath she hadn't realized she'd been holding.

"Your turn, angel," Gabriel told Olive, who gave him a dirty look and a rude hand gesture. He laughed. "You have two minutes." Carrie bid Olive good luck as the co-pilot and engineer made ready. She took off her headset and nodded to Gabriel. "Three...two...one. Jump, Ollie."

"Don't _call me that!_" Olive yelled right before stepping off the helicopter, and falling towards the island with a short surprised scream; Carrie shuddered. Still, as the craft continued to circle, she leaned over to watch Olive's red parachute open like a gigantic scarlet mushroom over the treetops, and sighed in relief.

"Last but not least-!" announced Gabriel playfully from the controls.

"_Me?" _Carrie squeaked.

"Yup. Go ahead and get ready. Bring your diver's equipment- that'll weigh you down."

In the first test run, the other three told her that she wouldn't have weighed enough for the parachute to open and she would have died. Carrie nodded, glad that this wasn't going to be an issue in the real deal. She unstrapped herself, clipped her backpack and diving equipment to herself and the parachute pack, then double checked to make sure everything was secure. She gave a thumbs-up to the pilot before taking off her headphones. The unmuffled sound of the thundering helicopter was deafening in her ears. She could barely hear him say, "Three...two...one!"

Deathly afraid of heights, Carrie closed her eyes and jumped.

As instructed, she waited four seconds before pulling the cord.

Nothing happened.

Carrie gasped, fighting the panic setting in. The emergency cord! She pulled it and without missing a beat, a black chute deployed overhead, slowing her speed. Thank goodness she had enough altitude!

When Carrie hit the ground, she was breathing hard from her scare, but managed to push the chute off her and unattach the strings. Still jittery, she gave a shriek as a large crack issued from the wall ahead of her, the wall that held an admirable, sturdy iron gate. From there, it seemed, was an earthquake: the ground began to rumble and shake beneath her, and she struggled to keep her balance as the island tossed her around like a toy. The ground disappeared in places, and Carrie's grounded parachute sunk into the bleak heart of the island. To her dismay, water gushed from all the horrible cracks, gashes, and holes in the earth around her. Carrie dove into her backpack, and struggled to put on the communication headset that would enable her to keep in touch with the other three on the island.

"This is Carrie!" she cried. "What's going on!"

_"This is Olive," _a lower voice than Carrie's responded. _"There seems to have been an earthquake in my sector. And there's water rushing at me from every direction...I can't tell-"_

_ "Olive? Carrie? It's Q," _Quyen interrupted. _"Nothing's happened where I am, but there's some kind of temple next to me that's flooding fast. Was there a river that split in the earthquakes?"_

_ "Guys." _The unusual earnestness in their funloving pilot's voice cut through all the questions. _"Hate to break it to you...But the island is sinking."_


End file.
